New expats need to be a bit more open to trying new things, and those partners who are already in their home country need to accept that flexibility is essential and some things they take for granted may not be (at least immediately) acceptable to their immigrant wife/husband/partner.

Lucy Nashed, the governor's spokeswoman, said the amendments are actually positive, because they offer short-term flexibility to employers while retaining requirements that the state eventually will get the promised jobs, or get its money back.

This flexibility is heartening for those who believe that, in a highly globalized and interdependent world, the vast majority of people in all three Abrahamic faiths have more to gain through peaceful coexistence and cooperation than through intolerance and violence.